Monday, June 4, 2012

Don't Forget the Water

When Sir Knight and I bought bare land, the first thing our folks advised us to do was drill a well. We could live without electricity, we could live without a regular house, but what we couldn't live without was water. And so we drilled. Two wells, 895 feet and 9 days of nerve wracking agony and we finally hit water. Although it cost more than triple the amount we had budgeted for a well, we had a strong supply of clean, fresh, mountain water. And we have never regretted it. Without water, there ceases to be life.

As we prepare for the worst of times, we have tried to cover all our bases. One gaping hole in our overall plan has been a water purification system. We had looked at many options, but held back due to the cost and the requirements of consumable filters. We wanted something a little more versatile, portable and effective. We have finally found that filter. Our newest sponsor, Ecogreen Energy, LLC, (their button is on the upper right-hand side of the blog) has the water filter we have been looking for. It is not only eminently portable, it assembles in a snap and extracts pure drinking water from any water source. It was originally designed by the University of Alabama to solve water problems in developing countries and removes salt (yes, it is a desalination unit), pesticides, uranium, fluoride and even radioactive isotopes from contaminated water sources. As far as we can tell, it is the ultimate survival water purification unit.

Ecogreen has many different filter configurations to suit every need, including options for those choosing to bug-out on their sailing boat. They offer quantity discounts (for prepping/survival groups) and competitive pricing. Ecogreen just may be the answer to your water purification needs.

When preparing for TEOTWAWKI, whatever you do, don't forget the water!

5 comments:

Like any solar powered system, how well it works depends on the amount of sunlight you get on average per day. This varies with the season. I ran into this when I put in a small solar electric rig to power my CPAP. It worked great all summer but could not keep the battery charged in the winter. I plan to nearly double the size of the array before the next winter and hope to solve the problem. I am in Colorado and you are further North where this will be a bigger deal.

What is worse with a solar distiller is that it is temperature sensitive. On their website they make no mention of the temperature range their system will work over. The output will depend on temperature, and I strongly suspect that when the temperatures get below freezing the system will simply produce zero distilled output.

Have you asked them about these issues?

How large a solar distiller is required to produce your minimum water requirements, at your location with your weather? Will you even get any water in sub-freezing temperatures?

Such a system might be great in warmer climates, but I greatly fear it will not be what you need at your location.

Our intention was to use it during the summer month, knowing it wouldn't work during the winter. I did ask the nice folks at Ecogreen to answer your questions, here is what they said:

The Passive Basin solar desalination still is made for warm weather and tropical weather locations, or for use in warm months in higher latitudes. Solar stills generally will not produce water in freezing temperatures, and their output drops in cold weather. They are designed to be used in water stressed areas, of which over 90% of these areas are in warm to hot climates. If you live in a cold climate and you probably already have access to non-saline ground water, which can be filtered, you likely donot need a desalination unit.

Your post says your well producee a "strong supply of clean, fresh, mountain water". So why do you need a water purification unit???

My wells (3 of them)produce biologically safe water by contain iron that stains white things a nice shade of ivory and the water is acidic which reacts with the copper piping and causes green stains in the tubs and toilet bowl. We have a water conditioner that takes care of these minor aggrivations.

Dear Hangtown;We do have an excellent, deep well. We have no need of water purification - now. Our systems are put in place for "what if". We hope to never need anything other than our well water, but if we do, we want to be ready. We think this is a great option of purifying ground water during the warmer summer months. We have other options for different times of the year. We like to have at least 3 ways of doing anything, including providing clean drinking water.

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About Me

I am a christian, conservative, survival minded, homeschooling,off-grid, independent, home-birthing, Proverbs 31, Titus 2 minded 40 year old woman. I live with my husband and five children in our solar/generator powered shop on 30 acres. We are homestead types who try to do as much as we can ourselves, but understand the importance of community.